J.C. Karich’s 3D-Printed Headphones Are Music to Our Ears

If you’ve always had trouble finding the perfect pair of headphones, this new 3D-printed iteration just might be music to your ears. Made with just a few simple elements, they combine 3D-printed parts with raw materials such wire, tape, solder and magnets. The designer, J.C. Karich, 3D-printed the speaker pieces, ear parts and even the plug, which can fit a standard jack connector. Although the headphones need a power amplifier to play music from a smartphone, Karich claims that the sound quality is actually better than expected.

The headband, the largest of the 3D-printed parts, has an accordion-fold shape built into it, and works as a plastic spring to make the headphones flexible as they stretch across the head. Karich also coiled copper wire inside the printed casing which has a small space on the opposite side for the magnet. The speaker itself is a very thin 3D-printed piece with a rail for the wire. The plastic headphone jack can fit into any standard headphone outlet without getting caught while it’s inserted into a device.